"I was so damned mad... I can tell you this, he will remember the day"

A long running political feud between a small East Texas county's GOP Chairman candidate and his rival got physical and landed the candidate in jail briefly.

Seventy-year-old candidate Jerry Wilson is charged with assaulting Kenneth Young, an elderly man who he accused of removing his carefully placed ("meticulously placed") political signs.

The men agree they've been involved in a long-running political feud. Wilson told KFDM News in Beaumont, Texas that someone pulled up his campaign signs at a community center in Vidor, Texas. The signs were replaced with signs urging people not to vote for him. Wilson admitted he got into a fight with the suspect.

According to the candidate, Young removed his signs and replaced them with signs urging voters 'not to vote for RINO Jerry.' RINO is a term meant to describe someone others believe is a Republican in Name Only.

Wilson said another man removed about 20 of his signs and put up the new ones in their place.

"I've been in politics a long time," Wilson told KFDM News by phone Tuesday. "If your sign you've meticulously placed is pulled up and replaced by somebody else's signs-- I was so damn mad and he was sitting there. This feud has been going on long enough. I'm 70 years old.

"I try to be as good a part of my community as I can. I walked over to him and said 'you're pulling up my signs and destroying them.' He said 'what are you going to do about it?' It was a fight. He was landing punches, too. I can tell you this-he will remember the day.

"Whatever my punishment is, I'll take it. If I had to do it over again I don't think I'd change one thing. He deserved what he got."

Somehow, this whole situation makes me think of Kevin Nealon's role as Councilman Doug Wilson in the Showtime series, "Weeds." I just had to throw that in... but wow, can I just hear Councilman Doug saying, "I can tell you this.... he will remember the day," as he punches out an elderly man opposing his platform.

Wilson told us he remains a candidate for Orange County Republican Party Chairman.